New Big Mountain lodge planned
More changes to the landscape of
Whitefish Mountain Resort’s upper village are brewing.
A small group of Winter Sports Inc.
shareholders, including majority holder Bill Foley, has plans to
build a slope-side lodge where the Ed & Mully’s restaurant
currently stands. The Snow Ghost Lodge will feature about 38
hotel-style units, a restaurant and bar open to the public,
ticketing and some retail, and it will house the Big Mountain
Club.
The resort owns the land where the
lodge will be built, but the project will be financed by the group
of shareholders through sales of the hotel units.
“The mountain is going to benefit
greatly from this,” resort marketing director Nick Polumbus said.
“The project is independent from the resort, but our services will
be improved. That’s the key — it’s not a financial risk to the
resort at all.”
Foley has played an integral part in
resort upgrades since becoming the majority holder in 2005. He was
involved with building the $11.5 million Base Lodge and upgrading
two high-speed quad chairlifts.
Posters and banners advertising the
Snow Ghost Lodge are hanging around the resort now, but there’s no
timeline set for when ground will be broken.
“It’s a project we’re trying to assess
at this point,” Polumbus said. “We’re trying to gather a
decent-sized list of people who say they’re interested in buying a
unit. When and if we have enough, we’ll take the next step.”
If enough interest is shown,
construction could begin as early as this year.
Ross Pickert, president of Glacier
Sotheby’s in Whitefish, says they’ve seen positive feedback from
potential buyers. Sotheby’s is the broker for the new lodge and is
handling the marketing.
“I think interest will only grow,”
Pickert said. “We’ve had great activity, it’s very
encouraging.”
Pickert noted that the lodge is in the
predesign phase, and that they’re looking for public comment.
“Nothing is set in stone,” he said.
While there’s nothing wrong
structurally with the current Ed & Mully’s building, Polumbus
said, the resort envisions the new lodge’s aesthetics fitting in
better with other buildings in the Upper Village.
The classic Glacier Park-style lodge
designed by CTA architects in Missoula will be one story shorter
than the adjacent Morning Eagle Lodge and will be built in nearly
the exact footprint of Ed & Mully’s.
Renderings show a mixed façade of stone
and wood. Hotel units will be 450 square feet and offer views
toward the Flathead Valley or Big Mountain. The levels on grade
with the ski slope and street level will feature a restaurant,
retail and an outdoor heated patio.
The slope-side hotel units are
projected to sell in the mid $200,000 range. Suites will be wholly
owned.
Polumbus said the Snow Ghost Lodge will
fit in with the resort’s long-term plans to improve the mountain’s
overall skier services.
A new lift to be installed this summer
will connect the Base Lodge with the Upper Village, with dirt work
extending Russ’ Street through the trees that separate the Toni
Matt and Big Ravine slopes. As it is now, the only way to get from
the Base Lodge to the Upper Village, other than by foot, is by
shuttle bus.
“A green-circle skier could take one
lift up from the Base Lodge and ski to the Upper Village,” Polumbus
explained. “If we put in that new chair and this new hotel, and
then move Chairs 4 and 5, it’s all improving the skier
experience.”
Dirt work also is planned to improve
skier access to Chairs 1, 2 and 3 from the site of the proposed
lodge. Skiers will travel slightly downhill from the lodge to those
chairs when the work is done.
There is also a demand for more hotel
lodging beyond what is offered now. Currently, there are about 200
on-mountain condos and town homes, with hotel lodging at the
Hibernation House and Kandahar Lodge. When the Alpinglow Inn was
torn down last summer, there was a gap in lodging options, Polumbus
said.